Five killed in fire at Bangladesh hospital's coronavirus unit: official

At least five people, including a woman, were killed as a major fire broke out Wednesday at the COVID-19 unit of a health facility in Bangladesh's post Gulshan market area, a senior official said. The fire broke out shortly before 10 pm after which the fire fighters were informed about the incident at the hospital. "We have recovered five bodies. Of them four were male and one female," fire service's operations director Lieutenant Colonel Zillur Rahman told reporters here.

SM Kamruzzama, the police station-in-charge of Gulshan area, said the fire broke out at the corona isolation unit of the hospital on the ground floor. While the exact cause of the incident was not known, media reports said an explosion of the air conditioning system caused the blaze that quickly spread and killed the five. It initially appeared to be COVID-19 patients but fire officials said they were yet to ascertain the victims' identity.

Hospital officials were not immediately available for comments. Witnesses and fire officials said the structure where the blaze broke out was isolated from the main hospital complex and was the emergency unit of the facility until being turned into a corona unit.

Fire service chief Brigadier General Sajjad Hossain said the structure lacked required system to douse blazes while investigations were ordered to find what caused the tragedy.